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WINNERS OF 11th ANNUAL WEBBY AWARDS ANNOUNCED;

DAVID BOWIE, THE EBAY COMMUNITY, AND

YOUTUBE CO-FOUNDERS TO BE HONORED AT JUNE 5th CEREMONY

www.webbyawards.com

New York, NY (May 1, 2007) – The winners of The 11th Annual Webby Awards will be saluted alongside a remarkable slate of special achievement honorees, including rock legend David Bowie, eBay President and CEO Meg Whitman on behalf of the eBay community, and the co-founders of YouTube, at the June 5th gala in New York City, Webby organizers announced today.

The Webby Awards winners were revealed today in a wide range of categories, including Websites and brand new categories honoring online film and video, interactive advertising, and mobile content.

In addition, over 400,000 votes were cast by people around the world for their favorite sites, videos, and ads in The Webby People’s Voice Awards presented by Verizon. A full list of both Webby Awards and People’s Voice Awards winners can be found at www.webbyawards.com.

Organizers also announced recipients of this year’s Webby Special Achievement awards, including:

• Webby Lifetime Achievement – David Bowie: The rock icon will be honored for a career that has pushed the boundaries of art and technology — from BowieNet, the seminal Internet service provider he launched in 1998, to UltraStar, his digital media company that creates cutting edge online content for artists like The Rolling Stones, The Police, and Mariah Carey, to BowieArt, an innovative Web site that connects emerging visual artists with collectors worldwide.
• Webby Lifetime Achievement – The eBay Community: eBay President and CEO Meg Whitman will accept the award on behalf of the 233 million registered buyers and sellers who have made eBay a cultural phenomenon and permanently changed the way people connect, discover and interact with each other.
• Webby Person of the Year- YouTube Co-Founders Steve Chen and Chad Hurley: The co-founders of the video-sharing sensation will be saluted for YouTube’s role in transforming the media landscape and reshaping everything from politics to pop culture.
• Best Actor and Actress – “Ninja” from “Ask a Ninja” and Jessica Lee Rose from “lonelygirl15”: “Ninja,” from the breakout online comedy series “Ask a Ninja,” and Jessica Lee Rose, who became an overnight sensation as the enigmatic star of the acclaimed fictional video diary “lonelygirl15,” will be honored at the first-ever Webby Film and Video Awards.

Past Webby Special Achievement honorees include Al Gore, Prince, Gorillaz, Thomas Friedman, the founders of Flickr, MySpace, and Craigslist, and Internet co-inventor Robert Kahn.

Hailed as the “OSCARS® of the Internet” by the New York Times, The Webby Awards is presented by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, a 550-person judging academy whose members include Vinton Cerf, R/GA’s Chief Bob Greenberg, “Simpson’s” creator Matt Groening, Arianna Huffington, and Harvey Weinstein.

This year, winners will be honored at two ceremonies: The Webby Film & Video Awards on June 4th and The 11th Annual Webby Awards on June 5th. Both ceremonies will be hosted by comedian Rob Corddry (“The Winner”, “The Daily Show”) and will feature the Webbys’ famous five word speeches. (Al Gore’s 2005 speech: “Please don’t recount this vote.”)

“The Webby winners and special achievement honorees represent the very best in online creativity and innovation,” said Webby Awards executive director David-Michel Davies. “We’re proud to salute the people and organizations whose ideas and vision are transforming how we experience the world.”

Highlights of this year’s winners include:

• Webby Award Winners range from powerhouses such as NPR (Podcasts), Nike (Retail), Sony (Home Page), and The New York Times’ “Dealbook” (Business Blog) to independent sites like Blip.tv (Broadband), “we make money not art” (Cultural Blog), Last.fm (Music), and Wikitravel (Travel).
• Webby People’s Voice winners include Facebook (Social/Networking), Save the Internet (Activism), Dream it Do it (Associations), Best Week Ever (Celebrity/Fan), FabSugar (Fashion), Treehugger (Cultural Blog), Gifts.com (Services), and TripAdvisor (Travel).
• Multiple Webby Awards winners include: Flickr (5), Adobe (5), HowStuffWorks (4), Jonathan Yuen (3), BBC (3), and LinkedIn (2).
• Achieving both critical and popular consensus, 20 sites won both a Webby Award and a People’s Voice Award including: Norelco’s ShaveEverywhere.com (Beauty/ Grooming), Truthdig (Politics), Pan’s Labyrinth (Movies), The Onion (Humor), Mindflood Seduction (Professional Services), and Cute Overload (Weird).
• Advertising, interactive, and design agencies continued to play an influential role in setting the benchmarks in both Website design and advertising, with several agencies winning multiple awards, including: Tribal DDB (6), Farfar (4), R/GA (4), Crispin, Porter + Bogusky (3), Euro RSCG (3), Forsman & Bodenfors (3), Goodby, Silverstein & Partners (3), McCann (3), Saatchi LA (2) and Ogilvy (2). In the new advertising categories, winners include Farfar’s “Stockholm the Musical” and Varitalk’s celebrated “Snakes on a Plane” work.
• Winners for the inaugural Webby Film and Video Awards range from major networks like NBC’s “The Office Webisodes” (Comedy-Short) to upstart Eepybird.com’s “Extreme Diet Coke and Mentos Experiments” (Viral).
• Winners in the first-ever mobile content categories are: Ask Mobile (Listings/Guides), “Maxim Mobile” (Mobile News & Entertainment) and “Thumbplay” (Mobile Marketplace & Services).
• International winners of The 11th Annual Webby Awards include: United Kingdom, Sweden, The Netherlands, Singapore, Brazil, Italy, Australia, Canada, Czech Republic, Germany, India, Japan, and South Korea.

About The Webby Awards:
Hailed as the “OSCARS® of the Internet” by the New York Times, The Webby Awards is the leading international award honoring excellence on the Internet, including Web sites, interactive advertising, online film and video, and mobile web sites. Established in 1996, the 11th Annual Webby Awards received a record 8,000 entries from all 50 states and over 60 countries worldwide. The Webby Awards is presented by The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences. Sponsors and Partners of The Webby Awards include: Adobe; The Creative Group; Verizon; AOL Video; dotMobi; The Barbarian Group; CondéNast|CondéNet; Level3; Adweek; Fortune; Reuters; Variety; Wired; IDG: Brightcove; PricewaterhouseCoopers; 2advanced.Net; KobeMail and Museum of the Moving Image.

OSCAR® is a federally registered trademark of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The Webby Awards and the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences are in no way affiliated with or sponsored by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences or OSCAR®.

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